In the continuous mining of coal, or like material from a bore, it has been found very advantageous to convey the mined material from the cutting site to the bore mouth utilizing an endless belt conveyor. Such an apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,535, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. In the mining machine illustrated therein, it is possible to add supporting sections for the endless conveyor belt as the bore lengthens so that the conveyor belt always extends from adjacent the cutting site to the bore mouth, without interruption of the mined material conveying operation of the conveying belts. However this is accomplished by mounting the return and trough rollers for supporting the conveyance and return portions of the conveyor belt so that they may be readily detached from the module frame. When each conveyance module is put into place at the bore mouth, it is put into place without the rollers attached to the frame, and then the rollers are fixed into place. This is too labor intensive and time consuming to maximize the conveyance action.
According to the present invention, a conveyance module is provided which overcomes the prior art problems discussed above. According to the present invention, the conveyance module comprises: A carriage frame having a front, rear, top, and sides. Mobile means mounting the carriage frame for movement into a bore, front first. A plurality of conveyor belts supporting return rollers extending between the frame sides below the top, and spaced from each other from front to rear along the frame. A plurality of conveyor belt supporting trough roller sets mounted at the top of the frame, above the return rollers, the sets spaced from each other front to rear along the frame. And, means for mounting the sets for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis at one side of the frame, the axis parallel to a center line from the front to the rear of the frame, so that each set may be pivoted up to expose the return rollers and allow the return portion of an endless conveyor belt to contact the return rollers. The mobile means preferably comprises a plurality of axles and wheels mounted on the frame, and coupling elements are provided at the front and rear of the frame for coupling each module to leading and trailing modules.
In order to efficiently insert the modules in the conveyance train for conveying mined material from the cutting site to the bore mouth, according to the invention it is desirable to provide a conveyor belt mounting assembly. The conveyor belt mounting assembly comprises: A supporting structure. A take-up assembly for an endless conveyor belt mounted on the supporting structure, the conveyor belt extractable from the take-up unit including a main belt portion and a return belt portion. Means for supporting a plurality of mobile carriages in the support structure so that the carriages may be moved, one at a time, into operative association with the endless conveyor belt, each mobile carriage having main rollers for receiving the main belt portion, and return rollers for receiving the return belt portion; and the supporting means supporting the carriages one above the other on opposite sides of the take-up means. All of the modules on the left hand side of the take-up unit have the trough supporting roller set thereof mounted for pivotal movement about the left side of the frame, while the conveyance units mounted on the right side of the take-up unit have the supporting roller conveyance sets mounted for pivotal action on the right hand side of the frame.
The entire supporting structure can be mounted on crawlers so that it can be moved from place to place (that is from bore mouth to bore mouth).
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide for the effective conveyance of mined material from a cutting site to a bore mouth utilizing a plurality of endless conveyor belt supporting modules. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.